THE RAMMED EARTH REVOLUTION COPYRIGHT: 2004 DIRECTOR: François LE BAYON AUTHOR: François LE BAYON FORMAT: Digital Beta DIFFUSION: Digital Beta 3/4 MONO DURATION: 49 minutes VERSIONS: French, Portuguese TYPE: documentary PRODUCTION: RFO, Lieurac Productions, Nanook Productions PARTICIPATION: UNESCO, Planète, Radio Televisao Portuguesa, Centre National de la Cinématographie. DISTRIBUTION: ARTE France distribution. Around two hundred million people live in houses built from earth. The very first towns and cities were made from earth, a material that has been used all over the world for thousands of years. Very pliable, it can be fashioned into any architectural shape or form desired. Dried solely by the sun, the earth becomes as hard as concrete. Dug up on the spot where the construction will take place, it does not need to be fired or transported. Completely natural, it totally respects the environment. Known for maintaining a fresh temperature in summer and for conserving warmth in winter, it remains today "the" material that is the easiest to procure and the easiest and most economical to use. It is the answer to the construction of houses in poor countries where around one hundred million people live in very bad conditions. Shot in Egypt, Syria, Peru, Burma, Mali, in Djenne (a town that is listed by UNESCO as World Heritage) and on the Island of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean, this documentary shows how earth is the material of the future for construction, in rich and poor countries alike.